Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Christopher Sandoval, 11, of Detroit, in a picture taken last week, died Sunday when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver.

Lisa Sandoval wipes tears from her eyes as she looks over to where her 10-year-old son, Christopher Sandoval, a sixth-grader at Clintondale Middle School, was killed Sunday while taking out the trash by a hit-and-run driver. Christopher's five siblings wait near a makeshift memorial in the family's front porch. / Tammy Stables Battaglia/Detroit Free Press

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Police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a 10-year-old boy Sunday afternoon as he took out the trash, steps from his home on Detroit's east side.

Police say the red pickup went off the roadway and hit the child on the sidewalk around 1:20 p.m. on Bringard near Cordell.

The driver -- described as a white male around 40 -- also hit the garbage can, which got stuck under his truck, and he stopped about a block from the scene to remove it, then kept going, Detroit Police Lt. Charles Flanagan said.

"It's very unfortunate," he said. "We'd like to get the person into custody as soon as possible."

Selene Clay, 45, who lives about a block away from where the child was struck, was coming home from church when she saw it. She said the truck "jumped up on the curb and hit the trash" and she ran to the scene, not realizing a child was hit.

"The truck never did stop," she said.

The boy, who was lying about 3 feet from the curb in the street, was bleeding and barely breathing when she got there, Clay said.

"It was devastating," she said. "It's sad that senseless things like this go on."

She said another man, who also was driving a truck, stopped to let the family know what happened and family members ran out with one yelling, "Does anyone know CPR?"

Medics rushed the boy, whose name has not been released, to St. John Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, officials said.

Trash remained in the road Sunday afternoon as police investigated. Officials are working with law enforcement officials in Harper Woods and Eastpointe to solve the case and said neighbors also were looking for the truck.

As of Sunday evening, no arrests had been made.

Witnesses in the area told police the truck held two snowblowers.

Police said they think the truck also had equipment that would allow a plow to be attached to the front, indicating the owner might work in snow removal. They don't think the crash would have caused extensive front-end damage.